Galaxy return home, end skid

Apparently for the Galaxy, all it takes is a return home to get a victory.

After a month on the road and four winless efforts, they returned to the site of their two victories this season and scored a 2-1 victory over FC Dallas on Wednesday night at StubHub Center.

The previous victories for the Galaxy (3-3-3) came at home over Vancouver on April 12 and against Chivas USA on April 6 in a Chivas home game.

Robbie Keane’s sixth goal of the season and Gyasi Zardes’ first gave the Galaxy a 2-0 lead at halftime and the club looked a lot more comfortable than it did last weekend in Houston, the first game the Galaxy played after Landon Donovan and Omar Gonzalez took off for national team duties.

With Kenney Walker playing only his second game at midfield for the Galaxy in place of Baggio Husidic, the Galaxy had few problems with Dallas (5-6-2), which has been beset by injuries and lost for the fifth time in six games.

Tommy Meyer, playing Gonzalez’s place at central defense, kept the game scoreless in the 18th minute when he tracked back to break up the run of Fabian Castillo, who had picked up an errant pass from Stafan Ishizaki.

Then the Galaxy went on the attack. Zardes carried the ball up the left wing and spotted Keane alone but a distance across the field. Zardes got the ball there and Keane, with two defenders closing in, made a move on each of them and blasted a left-footed shot into the upper-left corner in the 24th minute.

Playing in his 64th MLS match, Keane netted his 40th goal to go with 22 assists. Listed as a starting forward, Keane was all over the field, leaving Dallas guessing which side to defend.

The next attack from the left side came from midfielder Juninho, who tracked down a ball and sent a curling pass toward the front of the net. It cleared the defense and Zardes headed it in and it was 2-0 in the 44th minute.

It was the first goal of the season for Zardes and his fifth in two seasons.

Dallas came out on the attack in the second half but couldn’t finish its chances despite a couple of flurries in front of Jaime Penedo, who lost his shutout in the 65th minute.

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Defender Jair Benitez, keeping the pressure on in the Galaxy end, sneaked a pass to Tesho Akindele, who got behind the defense to make it 2-1.

On the other end, Keane nearly added to his total in the 55th minute. Dan Gargan sent a crossing pass to the top of the box from the right side. Keane stopped it with his chest but his left-footer whistled just wide to the right.

The victory enabled to the Galaxy to jump past three teams in the Western Conference standings. They entered the night in last place in the nine-team table but moved up to sixth. The Galaxy have played three fewer games than two of the teams.

They can move up again on Sunday when they face struggling Philadelphia, which has the most losses in the league (six).